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Chinese Trade and Investment opportunities to be presented at FREE event

WED 07

FEB

2018

Writer:jill

MEDIA RELEASE: Monday 29th January 2018

Chinese Trade and Investment opportunities to be presented at FREE event

The Tamworth Business Chamber in partnership with Namoi Unlimited a Joint Organisation of Councils in NSW will hold a FREE business and export event on Thursday 1st February 2018 in the Passchendaele Room at the Tamworth Town Hall.

The event will feature Mr Tony Zhang, Commissioner NSW Trade & Investment, North and East China. Mr Zhang is a guest of Namoi Unlimited and is touring the Local Government Areas of Gunnedah, Gwydir, Liverpool Plains, Narrabri, Tamworth, Uralla and Walcha.

The event is FREE for the community, Tamworth Business Chamber President Jye Segboer encouraged businesses interested in export opportunities and access into China to attend.

“This is a FREE event for businesses and the general community. It is an opportunity for us to hear first hand from a Commissioner for Trade in NSW based in China.”

“I am keen to hear his insights after touring the Tamworth district and beyond about how we can grow business and employment in our region.”

Mr Tony Zhang was appointed as Trade & Investment Commissioner for North and East China, based in Shanghai in August 2009.

Tony’s role is to attract Chinese investments into NSW and assist NSW companies in doing business in China. Tony is also responsible for building and maintaining the relationship with Chinese government at all levels.

Prior to his current role, Tony was Trade Commissioner at the Australian Embassy in Beijing. His team was responsible for the sectors of financial services, mining, energy, food and beverage and helping Australian companies to conduct business in China.

Women Get On Board!

TUE 05

DEC

2017

Writer:jill

MEDIA RELEASE: Tuesday 5th December 2017

Women Get On Board!

The Tamworth Business Chamber is leading the way when it comes to gender equality. Local business women now make up 50% of the Chamber Board and 50% of the newly elected Executive Team, announced this morning.

Women, on average, currently represent 25.2 per cent of all board positions in Australia, with a view to achieving 30% representation on ASX boards by 2018. *

Tamworth Business Chamber President Jye Segboer is excited by the gender mix, saying that it not only represents gender equality in leadership, but also sends a strong message to our business community.

“It is refreshing to not only see new female faces on the Executive Team, but to see equal gender representation across the entire Board. Having diversity sends a positive message to the community and is good for overall business confidence and economy.”

The 2018 Tamworth Business Chamber Board with Executive positions elected at today’s final Board Meeting for 2017 are as follows:

"Meet The Candidates" forum CANCELLED

2017

Tamworth Business Chamber has today announced that the “Meet The Candidates” forum on Monday 20th November, 6pm at Town Hall has been cancelled.

The Chamber has received very little interest from the general public and only a handful of candidates have expressed interest in participating.

Jye Segboer, President, Tamworth Business Chamber, said the number of enquiries dropped off once Barnaby Joyce confirmed he would not be attending.

“Unfortunately, without the numbers, there just wouldn’t be a balanced, healthy debate.”

The Chamber thanks those candidates who did come forward to participate in this FREE community event and to the members of the voting public who submitted their questions.

Pre-polling has commenced ahead of hitting the polls on Saturday 2nd December 2017.

Rugby star to deliver important message

MON 18

SEP

2017

Writer:jill

For Immediate Release

Tamworth Business Chamber and the Tamworth branch of the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP) have joined forces to deliver a mental health message.

Clyde Rathbone will be the special guest speaker at the Tamworth Business Chamber’s October breakfast event - Thursday 5th October, 7am, Quality Hotel Powerhouse.

Australian Rugby Union player Clyde Rathbone, retired from the sport in 2014 and co-founded Karma.wiki, an online community sharing open letters as a way to learn about people. Karma.wiki is a social network built on meaningful human connections.

Not without his own demons, Clyde Rathbone will share his own story, the idea behind karma.wiki and talk about the importance of close connections and good relationships in our community and individual workplaces.

Tamworth Business Chamber Marketing and Membership Manager, Jill Stewart said, “We are thrilled to have someone of Clyde’s stature as our guest speaker for our October event. Mental health within our community and the stigma associated it with, is a huge issue. R U OK day last week, showed just how important having conversation and connection is.”

“With more demands on time, greater financial pressures and an increased number of people working from home, often in isolation, loneliness is a real issue. We want to encourage these people to attend, but also everyone who works in small business or a large organisation. Just because you sit next to someone every day, doesn’t mean you are connecting. It’s easy to hide away at work.”

Kate Arndell, (RAMHP) added “It’s time we started considering our mental health as important as our physical health. “

Chamber fight ends in disappointment

2017

Tamworth Business Chamber has today announced that the closure of the Northern end of Peel St during 2018 Tamworth Country Music Festival (TCMF) is back on the agenda.

Despite the efforts of a small dedicated group of retailers and the Tamworth Business Chamber, a large number of businesses in the block failed to commit their support in the Chamber’s efforts to manage activity in the Northern Peel St block during Festival.

Tamworth Business Chamber President Jye Segboer said it was disappointing that attempts to get support has not been forthcoming and this is not a decision that has been made lightly.

“As a Chamber, we felt the need to step up on behalf of the affected businesses after hearing some compelling facts about Festival trading in the precinct and the Council’s decision to open the block to traffic. Together, we lobbied hard to get the motion passed for the block to remain closed during Festival.”

“We certainly did not wish to see local retailers suffer financially should the street be opened.”

“Our offer of support to Council was always contingent on a small financial contribution from the businesses in the block to assist in procuring entertainment, stage management and associated promotional activity.”

“Council were only ever going to provide the road closure infrastructure and it was up to us as a Chamber and the businesses in the block to work together,” added Mr Segboer.

Mr Segboer said, that as a membership based organisation, relying solely on members and sponsors, that he would not misuse these funds.

“There are currently only 8 Chamber members in the Northern Peel St block and even less agreed to support the Chamber’s efforts to keep the block closed”.

“Our role as a Chamber is to support and advocate for local business and we did this. Without support from the businesses, I cannot justify the misappropriation of our loyal members and sponsors funds.”

For the past 2 years, Council has had a written financial commitment from 24 businesses. When Chamber fought for those businesses, the expectation was that the financial commitment would remain.

“We were only asking businesses to commit to $50 a day over the 10 day Festival. If what we were hearing from these operators was correct - that they could potentially lose up to 60% of their trade during this time – the small financial commitment is not a large amount.”

“We also clearly communicated that we would refund any monies if we were not successful in getting enough support and that we would work to find a sponsor, with the intention of returning their contributions if viable.”

“It wasn’t ever really about the money, it was more about getting a commitment from the businesses to allow the Chamber to dedicate the time and resources to help them.”

The Chamber therefore has no option, but to hand the management of the block back to Council.